Where does “violence” come from?
Violence comes from Middle English violence, from Old French violence, from Latin violentia (force, vigor), derived from violentus (violent), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European weyh₁-.
violence (English): Extreme force; Action which causes destruction,...
Definitions
- Extreme force; Action which causes destruction,...
Ancestry of “violence”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Middle English | violence | Violence or an example of it; A harmful force of... |
| 2 | Old French | violence | violence; act of violence |
| 3 | Latin | violentia | violence; aggressiveness |
| 4 | Latin | -ia | Used to form a feminine abstract noun, usually... |
| 5 | Latin | -ius | forming adjectives from nouns; nominative neuter... |
| 6 | Proto-Italic | -jōs | Forms comparative adjectives |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | -yós | Creates adjectives from noun or verb stems |